At the southwest corner of the Virginia Range with easterfilmsdotcom.

The Preliminary Environmental Assessment for the Blue Wing HMAP says on page 163 of the pdf that if some number of mares become sterile as a result of PZP treatment, that result would be consistent with the contraceptive purpose that motivates BLM’s use of the vaccine, and with Congressional guidance that condones such treatment in the management of wild horses and burros.

That statement makes the advocacy groups partners, not adversaries, of the bureaucrats and ranchers.

RELATED: Blue Wing HMAP Shows Advocates Ill-Informed About Wild Horses.

The gather page says 110 horses were returned to the Complex in November, bringing the number of animals removed to 2,467.

All mares received two doses of GonaCon Equine.

The interval between treatments was not given.

At the time, the label called for 90 days, a requirement the BLM routinely ignored.

In January the interval was reduced to seven days.

RELATED: North Lander Roundup Ends.

Mothers are almost as hard to find at the Salt River and Virginia Range as foals.

Referring to the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses as the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization is like claiming that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s premier right-to-life organization.

Neither serves a charitable purpose.

The incident concluded on May 2 with 460 burros captured, 457 shipped, none returned and three dead.

There were no unaccounted-for animals.

The start date was April 15, one week later than scheduled.

The capture and removal goals were 400 each but a 15% increase was authorized.

The capture total included 187 jacks, 240 jennies and 33 foals.

Foals represented 7.2% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 43.8% were male and 56.2% were female.

The death rate was 0.7%.

There were no plans to treat any of the jennies with fertility control pesticides and return them to the HMA.

Animals identified for removal were taken to the Florence off-range corrals.

RELATED: Lake Pleasant Burros Going Off the Reservation?

The news release says the AML will range from 100 to 140, compared to 50 to 140 at the WHT page, implying heavy use of fertility control pesticides.

The closer the range the lower the expected growth rate.

The project folder contains numerous documents, including the Final Environmental Assessment and Draft Decision.

The Decision Record would authorize a modified version of Alternative 4, presented in Chapter 2 of the EA.

The proposed HMAP and its variants are discussed in Appendix A.

The Alternative 4 HMAP (page 234 in the pdf) calls for an AML of 50 to 140.

The DR corroborates that range.

Western Horse Watchers cannot account for the range given in the news release.

Other features of the modified plan include

• Bait trap removal, no helicopters
• Use of PZP and GonaCon Equine
• Monitoring for genetic diversity
• Prohibition of IUDs
• No skewing of sex ratios

Table 5 in the EA indicates that livestock in the JMA (HMA + WHT) receive 7,770 AUMs per year, while horses receive 1,680 AUMs per year at the high end of AML.

This yields a True AML of 140 + 7,770 ÷ 12 = 787, the number of horses the land could support if it was managed principally for them as specified in the original statute.

The problem is not inadequate fertility control, as the advocates would have you believe, but too many cow/calf pairs.

RELATED: Forest Service Seeks Input on EA for Murderer’s Creek HMAP.

The gather page said “No decisions are being made at this time regarding the long-term disposition of horses gathered as part of this emergency action” but the Forest Service has apparently decided they will be put up for adoption according to a May 9 news release about a new HMAP for the WHT.

The roundup, prompted by the 2024 Rail Ridge Fire, cut the herd by 410.

The status of livestock grazing in the burned area is not known.

RELATED: Murderer’s Creek Roundup Ends.

How stupid do you have to be to accept mass sterilization as wild horse conservation?

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Infertility Awareness Edition.

Here are the top three, in common use by the wild horse advocates:

• Protection
• Preservation
• Conservation

How stupid do you have to be to believe these frauds?

Outside Chloride HMA, Four Mile and Bible Spring were added to the May 1 update.

The bottom-line totals are the same as in the April 1 edition.

RELATED: Minor Changes in New Roundup Schedule.

The change was mentioned in a response to comments in the Buffalo Hills DNA.

The January 21 labeling amendment allows the second dose to be given in as little as seven days after the first.

The effect of the change on treated animals is not known.

Although the 2017 labeling amendment changed the interval to 90 days, the BLM continued to refer to the 2013 and 2015 registrations in planning documents issued after that date and gave two doses 30 days apart to mares captured in roundups, which constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.

If that sounds like an allegation of wrongdoing, it is.

RELATED: BLM Not Following GonaCon Treatment Plan at Buffalo Hills.

The Preliminary Environmental Assessment has been copied to the project folder along with a cover letter.

Comments are due by June 4 according to the news release.

Alternative A, the Proposed Action, features

• Implementation of a new HMAP
• Removal of excess animals to low AML
• Application of fertility control pesticides
• Sterilizing up to one fourth of the herd
• Skewing the sex ratio in favor of males
• Development of a new water source

The proposed HMAP is discussed in Appendix XIII of the EA.

Section 2.4.2.2 refers to a 2025 labeling amendment for GonaCon Equine, which may have changed the interval between treatments from 90 days to seven, but Western Horse Watchers has not been able to find it at the EPA website.

RELATED: Scoping Begins for Blue Wing HMAP.

UPDATE: The amendment changed the interval from 90 days to 7 days.

At the southwest corner of the Virginia Range with Western Horse Watchers.

This photo, taken on May 2, helps you understand why the Virginia Range advocates are eager to beat the horse numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides.

The view is from the west side of the lake, looking east across the marsh to the Virginia Range.

The Jumbo Allotment is on the far side and Duck Hill borders it on the south.

The advocates want the ranchers to win but motorized removal is cruel and costly and somebody has to take care of the captured animals.

A better approach is to not have any horses at all, and mass sterilization is an effective way to achieve that.

The advocates can sterilize a mare for about $200 (six to seven doses of PZP).

The Allotment Master Report puts Duck Hill in the Improve category, does not meet one or more standards for rangeland heath, and Jumbo in Custodial, condition unknown.

RELATED: NDA Installing Fence Around Washoe Lake?

The allotment, site of a spring exclosure project north of Winnemucca, NV, offers 3,600 active AUMs on 38,859 public acres according to the Allotment Master Report.

It’s in the Improve category, one or more standards for rangeland health not met.

The management plan assigns no forage to wild horses.

How many could live there?

The forage assigned to livestock is equivalent to 300 wild horses, or 7.7 per thousand public acres.

Why is this important?

Your faithful public servants claim that rangelands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The advocates, defeated a long time ago, prop up the fairy tale with their darting programs.

If the allotment was an HMA, the AML would be 39 and 261 wild horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.

BLM allotments in Nevada support livestock equivalent to 173,144 wild horses on 40,194,360 public acres, or 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses.

RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.

It will if the Local Opportunities, Conservation, and American Lands Act becomes law.

More in this report by KKCO News.

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and New Life do not belong together in the same sentence, paragraph or article.

The morons are those who support these frauds.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Infertility Awareness Edition.

He was sidelined because of ethics violations according to a report by WyoFile.

They have been doing a great job of managing the horses according to the writer of a letter to Tuscon dot com.

They administer birth control and provide water troughs and feeding programs at no cost to the government.

Much to her dismay, the Forest Service wants to reduce the herd to 100 or 150 horses, which is the next stop on the tour.

Environmental groups that want it cut to 50 or less will get their wish.

Those who want it wiped out altogether will be gratified.

There is no need to continue the charade.  Most of the mares have been ruined by the advocates, which the writer ignores.

Other characteristics omitted from the letter:

• Injuries and infections
• Elevated death rate
• Abnormal sex ratio
• Loss of genetic diversity
• Selection for faulty immune systems

The writer wants you to send letters to the governor and other officials to keep the herd in the Tonto National Forest even though her buddies are doing the opposite.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Achieve Nine Percent Death Rate.

The death rate in wild horse herds typically ranges from five to six percent per year.

But the Salt River advocates have exceeded that by 50%!

Data from report by KPHO News:

• Initial population: 460
• Current population: 260
• Duration of darting program: 6 years

460(1 – .09)⁶ = 261

The average age of the herd is increasing because few if any new foals are hitting the ground, which should increase the death rate, but not by this much.

Are they spiking the PZP with some other toxin?

RELATED: Remember This Roundup?